The other side of pre-flight safety demo

Most of us who travel by air would agree that Indigo Airlines services come with a sense of time, commitment and affordability in the Indian skies. I have personally shifted loyalty to Indigo like many other business class passengers.

I always prefer to sit on the first row aisle and this allows me to observe the activities of the crew from close – how they go about doing their in-flight chores and, of course, the pre-flight safety demonstration for passengers as per the basic international air safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and national civil aviation authorities.

These demos more or less are always the same. The air hostess or a flight attendant requests one of the first seat passengers for pull the table and then places the oxygen mask, seat belt, floatation devices etc., for demo. But I have noticed that the air hostesses, while going through the flight safety drill, place the life jacket on the carpeted floor.

I always wonder why the emergency life jacket, which they wear for demo purposes, are placed on the carpeted floor on which all the passengers put their shoes and walk to their respective seats. I haven’t seen this practice of keeping the life jacket on the floor in any other airlines.

I don’t think this is a proper practice to wear the same jacket which is put on the floor over which hundreds of people have walked past. The dirt and dust from their shoes get carried to the floor and it would, by any measure, be unhygienic on the part of the crew to put on a jacket placed on such a floor. The flight safety drill is all about being safe and knowing what one should do in an emergency situation – a very essential part of flying. But one should not overlook the fact that hygiene too is equally important and linked to human health and safety in no less a way.

I wonder whether it is just by chance they do it or is it part of the training that they are told to keep the life safety jacket on the floor.

Most of the foreign airlines have a recorded version of emergency procedures of the flight safety drill which is shown on the television before take off. I feel it is high time that our airlines too should introduce this.

Another fact is that I have always wondered was how many people actually pay real attention to the routine flight safety demos which are all very important but often boring. Well, I came across a YouTube posting that had gone viral where the cabin crew on board a Cebu Pacific Airlines, flying to the Philippines, grabbed passenger’s attention on board as they danced their safety demonstration to Lady Gaga’s Just Dance.

The stunned passengers were unable to take their eyes off. Let aside the song and dance, what struck me was the fact that the air hostesses dancing out the flight safety demo never once laid the life jacket on the floor.
ess bee